And that’s even considering that his mama, Lisa Lucidi, is his business partner and runs the Haymaker kitchen.

So you’ll find burgers and fries and steaks and salmon at the restaurant he opened Oct.9 and named for a knockout punch in boxing. If you want marinara, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

What is on the menu comes from years of experience in the restaurant industry. The Lucidi family has had 11 restaurants previously, first around Dearborn, Mich., where Joey was born, and then San Diego, where papa “Zip” Lucidi moved his family in 1983 to give them a better life.

In California, the Lucidis owned eight restaurants, including delis, pizza joints and the Hamburger Factory, known for its burgers and breakfasts.

Seven years ago, Joey got married and moved his new wife, Tanya, to Arizona to do what his father had done — give his family what he thought would be a better life. Unhappy with the liberal politics of California, Joey embraced the conservatism of the Valley, where he felt he could practice his Catholic faith and express his patriotism.

“I wanted a state where you could say the Pledge of Allegiance and it’s OK to be a Christian,” he says.

He took a break from the restaurant business for several years, running his own sales firm, but the kitchen kept drawing him back. He’d been working around food since he was a boy.

“Sales didn’t fulfill me. I love the service sector. I can’t sit behind a desk. I’m a boots and jeans guy,” he says.

Four years ago, he began considering getting back into restaurants. His extended family also had moved to Arizona — Lisa and Zip, two brothers and a sister, who since has moved to Long Island.

“We’re Italian,” he says. “We all have dinner every Sunday.”

Joey, who now has three girls, ages 6, 4 and 3, wanted to work near his home in north Peoria’s Vistancia community. He found the right property on Lake Pleasant Parkway and then the whole family got to work building from scratch — salvaging light fixtures from old barns, digging other lights out of a dumpster. Lisa painted the signs. The guys did the brickwork on the 4,475-square-foot space. Zip is a general contractor and relinquished only the electrical work to a specialist.

Lisa says they wanted the place to reflect the entrepreneurial spirit of the 1890s, rustic but comfortable and welcoming.

Joey and his mom collaborated on the menu. She contributed many of the recipes, though none Italian, such as her macaroni and cheese and signature bread pudding served with whiskey sauce.

Whiskey was one of the foundations of the menu. Joey was aiming for a restaurant that would be appealing to families as well as to adults looking for a date-night destination. So children eat free one night a week, military personnel receive a 10 percent discount on meals, and he built a whiskey program that will grow to feature 67 varieties from Scotland, Ireland and the United States. He promises he can persuade anyone to love whiskey. Mix it with ginger ale, and it goes down smooth.

The food menu continues the Lucidi tradition of burgers and fries. Joey found a fries purveyor that coats its product in extra potato starch. He promises they stay hot and crispy throughout a meal.

He serves steaks seasoned only with salt and pepper, and salmon from the Atlantic. His fish and chips feature hand-battered cod.

Joey’s homemade barbecue sauce, tweaked and refined over 12 years, has a sweet molasses base with a little kick. It covers his St. Louis ribs and pulled pork that cooks for six hours. The Haymaker prepares 40 pounds of pork a day.

“I never had anybody tell me they didn’t like it,” he says.

He’s also proud of his French dip sandwich, sliced top round cooked in its juices. Bread products come from Venezia Bakery in Tempe.

Lisa has passions outside of the kitchen. Long a horsewoman, at 60, she says she needs to do something meaningful in her life.

So now she volunteers with a Glendale organization called Horse Rhythm Foundation, which offers equine therapy to wounded veterans. She bought Sam Finn three years ago from a farm in Iowa. Sam is a Fjord, a Norwegian breed that resembles a small draft horse. He is white with a Mohawk and he’s “the love of my life.”

Yes, Zip likes Sam, too.

“Sam and I needed a job,” so they contacted Horse Rhythm and are developing a program where disabled vets can learn to drive Sam as he pulls a carriage.

Lisa’s day starts at the restaurant, ends with a visit to Sam and then dinner and a drink with her husband. At 11 p.m. it’s lights out.

“I’m not ready to retire from anything,” she says. “I like to keep busy. I’m type A mixed with OCD.”

Posting a comment to our website allows you to join in on the conversation. Share your story and unique perspective with members of the azcentral.com community.

Comments posted via facebook:

► Join the Discussion

Join the conversation! To comment on azcentral.com, you must be logged into an active personal account on Facebook. You are responsible for your comments and abuse of this privilege will not be tolerated. We reserve the right, without warning or notification, to remove comments and block users judged to violate our Terms of Service and Rules of Engagement. Facebook comments FAQ

Join thousands of azcentral.com fans on Facebook and get the day's most popular and talked-about Valley news, sports, entertainment and more - right in your newsfeed. You'll see what others are saying about the hot topics of the day.